We’ve gone to the “Cat6” (gas tube) versions but I don’t think that has any bearing on your question, if anything they may offer less protection, but better Ethernet data integrity.
Are you putting these at both ends of the cable, or only at the switch or router end? I never assume they protect the radios, unless the surge is coming from the network side, e.g. a power line surge. They protect the network equipment like switch, router or POE. If the surge is coming from the radio end, my personal opinion is a surge protector may actually increase the chance of radio damage by giving the surge a path to ground via the cable. But let’s face it, if the tower take a hit, you may lose equipment no matter what you do for grounding or surge protection. Best bet may be fiber for data and a direct power cable with a DC surge protector right at the radio. Strange that the Powerbridge was the only survivor, as you say, it’s not exactly a high end piece of equipment, basically a Rocket PCB built into a panel antenna. But it might be interesting to do a failure analysis on the stuff that died. Most of the time I find it’s the power supply that got fried, the radio won’t even power up. I looked at a Transtector product once that had fuses in the protection modules, that would seem to mean you always have to replace the modules after a surge, but maybe the fuse opening up is better for the radio. I suspect you just had a bad day. It happens despite best efforts. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Monday, August 31, 2020 8:27 AM To: AFMUG <[email protected]> Subject: [AFMUG] Surge cards, what should I expect? I've regularly used the 444 cards. Pretty much exclusively for years we've been using the GIGE-APC-HV. On a tower with 9 devices, I lost 8 of them. We've had 0 problems on this tower since adding the surge cards almost 6 years ago. A mix of Ubnt/Cambium. The one device that survived was a Powerbridge (the shitty panel) with one of the old surge cards that has an LED on it indicating power. All 8 other devices needed to be replaced on the tower. What should I expect the surge cards to do? I keep reading that the card should sacrifice itself so we can just replace the card on the ground instead of the radio on the tower - better for a 1 person fix, way cheaper, ground instead of tower, faster, etc. The tower owner is a big Motorola R56 guy and gave us the thumbs up with how we did the grounding. Did I just get screwed hard for some reason? An employee of the tower owner came out and had to fix some of their gear for their two way Motorola radio stuff, too, so maybe it was just a really shitty day. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373
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